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I know that it is painfully outdated. It is still one of my favorite palladium setting’s (love TMNT as well). I had a blast playing it when I was young (when it was not outdated).

Love it still in all its age.

Still awesome. We use it for all the wonder hand to hand styles.

Honestly...I've only played a it once with more a super spy aspect. Even so, it was fun.

Mostly I use it as a sourcebook for HU.

I wouldn't go so far as to say "love"...

However, I do like it. 1st ed, please...same with HU.
I want my 3 martial art Dedicated Artist!!!

In any case, as with Drewkitty, I primarily use it and MC as source material instead of as core material.

I just started a PBP after not having run a game for over ten years. Seems to be going well.

Still love to play ninja & superspies.

it recently struck me that while N&S is pretty dated, it'd now fit well with retro modern warfare that is prevalent in the newer Metal Gear Solid games. Where having a computer in you is actually a big deal!

I let pc's use zanji swordmasters in fantasy and when playing n&s i just pull weapons and cybergear from cyberpunk 2020, works pretty well, but i have made rules for Ranged combat that has to hit numbers for the different ranges and modifiers like weather and recoil and stuff.

I use N&S as pre rifts earth for megaversal travelling, and have had fantasy characters go there and vice versa, but the last time i ran a straight n&s campaign was awhile ago, but i did run quite a few back when i still played turtles.

YES! I do indeed LOVE it. It is still great material. It can be used stand alone or ported over into other games. Either way it is very useful and flavorful.

tsh77769

The only thing that makes it hard to love is that there's basically no setting material. It sort of tries to evoke a cold war asthetic of secret organizations but it basically assumes you are deeply familiar with 70's spy novels and if your not, all you have is a bunch of martial arts mechanics that are admitaly really cool.

Love it anyway, I just wish there was more fluff instead of a hundred ish pages of pure crunch.

considering how dated it is, its /perfect/ for the later Metal Gear Solid games

I like it but mostly use it and Mystic China as sourcebooks for other games

If you remove all the chi and weird abilities, all the martial arts will fit rather nicely into Palladium Fantasy.

Whether you just keep HTH: Martial Arts, and let them name the art concerned, or incorporate some of the bonuses it doesn't really matter.

Actually Rogerd, I'd keep the chi & weird abilities. They fit with a Fantasy environment.
(I'd also reverse the 2nd Ed erasure of chi. It fits with the theme better than having everything be PPE or ISP.)

If you are trying to make the PF game more like D&D (where everyone gets some sort of magic) Borast is right....thou only to a point.

The problem is that MAFs have a "time to learn" component, which would effect the age of the character. And if the character very young, that will limit if they can have learned a MAF or which MAF they could of learned.

some of the techniques are weird and clunky. 'Give up all your attacks for a +3 to defense' or 'spend your entire round screaming for one chance to knock people down' Then you have things like Body chi which can be devastating 'three chi to give myself a P.P. of thirty, spent from dragon chi' Chi itself is great and I'd rather it stay put too, but chi combat, well I guess I'd rather have hadokens than keep track of another resource

Nekira Sudacne wrote:The only thing that makes it hard to love is that there's basically no setting material. It sort of tries to evoke a cold war asthetic of secret organizations but it basically assumes you are deeply familiar with 70's spy novels and if your not, all you have is a bunch of martial arts mechanics that are admitaly really cool.

Love it anyway, I just wish there was more fluff instead of a hundred ish pages of pure crunch.

This game needs more source-books.
Maybe a RUE-like update, but aside from that I don't see the problem with "aged" systems.
They have the virtue of not being generic, cookie-cutter crap like say 5th edition D&D.

Fenris2020 wrote:

Nekira Sudacne wrote:The only thing that makes it hard to love is that there's basically no setting material. It sort of tries to evoke a cold war asthetic of secret organizations but it basically assumes you are deeply familiar with 70's spy novels and if your not, all you have is a bunch of martial arts mechanics that are admitaly really cool.

Love it anyway, I just wish there was more fluff instead of a hundred ish pages of pure crunch.

This game needs more source-books.
Maybe a RUE-like update, but aside from that I don't see the problem with "aged" systems.
They have the virtue of not being generic, cookie-cutter crap like say 5th edition D&D.

I didn't say the problem was the system was aged, I said it lacked setting fluff.

Originally used it in combination with TMNT in a world of spies, ninjas and mutants. Then after expecting that Rifts was going to be the TMNT: Transdimensional for BtS, N&S, PFRPG, HU and maybe even Mechanoids and being pleasantly surprised that it was it's own world and yet not started using everything as sourcebooks for Rifts.

Nekira Sudacne wrote:

Fenris2020 wrote:

Nekira Sudacne wrote:The only thing that makes it hard to love is that there's basically no setting material. It sort of tries to evoke a cold war asthetic of secret organizations but it basically assumes you are deeply familiar with 70's spy novels and if your not, all you have is a bunch of martial arts mechanics that are admitaly really cool.

Love it anyway, I just wish there was more fluff instead of a hundred ish pages of pure crunch.

This game needs more source-books.
Maybe a RUE-like update, but aside from that I don't see the problem with "aged" systems.
They have the virtue of not being generic, cookie-cutter crap like say 5th edition D&D.

I didn't say the problem was the system was aged, I said it lacked setting fluff.

Sorry for the misunderstanding; I agree with you.
The game needs... more.

Now that we have Cobra-Kai, does anyone feel that it is a bit like N&S?

Chuck in the old Lee Majors Bionic Man, and few 80's style ninja's and it would be the same thing?

I have always enjoyed N&SS, but like many I tend to use it as a supplement for HU, or even as a sort of earlier setting in that universe.

This game is still my favorite in terms of how they treated martial arts styles. The only thing I don't like is that there has ever been only a single expansion (though, that expansion--i.e. Mystic China--is excellent!

Grammarsalad wrote:This game is still my favorite in terms of how they treated martial arts styles. The only thing I don't like is that there has ever been only a single expansion (though, that expansion--i.e. Mystic China--is excellent!

I am on the other hand glad they only did one supplement. I like that it stayed Asian and we didn't get any capoeira, savate or krav maga. To me even Jeet Kun Do is pushing it.
Just wish the combat was clearer so that, that exact system is what was carried over into all the others.

Absolutely. I just bought the hardcover.

Thanks to the vehicle rules, I used N&SS to run M.A.S.K. way back when, and we had a blast with it. I was able to create good S.D.C. recreations of the iconic vehicles, and simulate the powers of the masks using bionics or cribbing powers from Heroes Unlimited. It was GREAT. We also had a Beyond the Supernatural game with a couple of Agent types in it to represent the government straight men sent in to debunk whatever the paranormal investigators came up with.

Zer0 Kay wrote:

Grammarsalad wrote:This game is still my favorite in terms of how they treated martial arts styles. The only thing I don't like is that there has ever been only a single expansion (though, that expansion--i.e. Mystic China--is excellent!

I am on the other hand glad they only did one supplement. I like that it stayed Asian and we didn't get any capoeira, savate or krav maga. To me even Jeet Kun Do is pushing it.
Just wish the combat was clearer so that, that exact system is what was carried over into all the others.

I can see more books for N&SS. An updated for modern day version at least. Maybe a book with more aerospace and submarine elements to it? spy subs, AWACS and recon planes, spacecraft and satellites. Also there are other countries in Asia besides China. I could see books going into the "mystic" side of those countries.

I would like to see an updated book as well. Others as well as myself have updated the Mil/Spec ops side of the book in order to keep it relevant. I really use the original for the system and everything else is home brew.

I think Ninjas and Superspies is great. Mystic China too.

Still, there is something to be said about updating things.